Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Haggard

What's haggard? An adjective meaning badly dressed, exhausted, and emotionally distressed.  It's synonym is another fine word--gaunt.

And the word--improbably--comes from Old French, through German.  It meant a wild hawk, or raptor.  So how does that translate to an adjective meaning exhausted and depressed?  Your guess is as good as mine.....  

No comments:

Post a Comment